


Night Changes

by moviegeek03



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Hurt TK Strand, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Romance, Valentine's Day, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:21:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29409018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moviegeek03/pseuds/moviegeek03
Summary: TK wasn’t much for Valentine’s Day. Despite being the romantic…Valentine’s Day just never did it for him. Not after spending so many as a kid handing out the homemade variety to crushes who didn’t understand his feelings. Not after fancy dinners fell flat. Not after that one time he ended up in the hospital. But maybe, maybe Carlos can find a way to change his feelings about the day.Written for Day 2 of Tarlos Valentine's - "“What do you want for breakfast?” “It’s 10 PM” “Oh”+ Late Night Hangouts + Favourite Date"
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 6
Kudos: 161
Collections: Tarlos Valentine 2021





	Night Changes

**Author's Note:**

> This was partially influenced by not only the prompt, but also a post on Facebook from the police department in the next town over. The screenshot referenced in this fic, totally based on that. It's real. And I couldn't stop laughing at it. Yet I someone made it whump? Hope you all enjoy! 
> 
> (Special thanks to mtnofgrace for the help!)

He wasn’t much for Valentine’s Day. Not really. Despite being the romantic, loving the fairy tale of love and grand gestures…Valentine’s Day just never did it for him. Not after spending so many as a kid handing out the homemade variety to crushes who didn’t understand his feelings. Not after fancy dinners fell flat. Not after that one time he ended up in the hospital…

Yeah, Valentine’s just wasn’t his favorite.

Which would no doubt explain why his oldest friend back in New York had sent him the screenshot.

His phone had buzzed as he started to unlock Carlos’s door. He pulled it from his pocket and saw it was from Andi. The two had been friends since they were young. She’d been there through 9/11, the start of his addiction, Alex…and everything in between. She knew everything about his life back then. And had tried to stay in contact with the move. She usually sent obscure Twitter or Facebook posts. But this…this took the cake.

He instantly started laughing at the image on his screen. He fumbled with Carlos’s door, nearly dropping his phone between the laughter and the bags in his arms. He stumbled inside, kicking off his boots once In the living room.

Carlos was in the ktichen, stirring something on the stove. He turned almost instantly, brow furrowing aS TK nearly doubled over with laughter as he came into the condo.

“What’s so funny, Ty?”

“Hey babe.” He couldn’t stop smiling. He walked into the kitchen. He pocked his phone and planted a kiss on Carlos’s cheek. He moved toward the sink to wash his hands. “It’s just a text. My friend Andi back in New York sent me something.” He dried off his hands. “You should get a kick out of it though.” He grabbed his phone again and turned the screen toward Carlos.

_NYPD_

_1h_

_❤️Valentine Day Weekend Special!💔_

_Do you have an ex-Valentine with an active warrant? Give us a call with name and location, and they could receive a special holiday offer! Complete with free transportation! A stay in our luscious spa (5 Star!). Mouth water meal with bevage! Special set of Men & Women bracelets! Just for them!_

_Show some love and enter by calling your local precinct! Callers can remain anonymous so you choose. Wishing everyone a Safe and Happy Valentine’s!_

Under the text of the post was a photo of a desk with some NYPD badges, a teddy bear sporting a police uniform, and a set of cuffs fixed just right…so they looked like hearts.

Carlos snorted at the image. “Well, that’s one way to do it.”

“Right?” TK smiled brightly, laughing again. “It’s clever. Gotta give them that if nothing else.”

Carlos pulled the phone closer, reading over it again and chuckling. “Oh for sure. Send me that. I’m sure my sergeant would get a kick out of it.”

“Of course.”

Before TK could pull the phone back to forward the screenshot, it pinged with a new text from Andi. Carlos saw the message before TK turned the cell away from him.

_Wish I knew where a few of your asshole exes lived…I’d turn them in for you, T. Especially you-know-who…._

“Asshole exes?” Carlos couldn’t help but ask.

TK sighed. “Ah, yeah, Andi has witnessed some of my finest. She’s just a little protective.” TK shot off a quick reply and put his phone back in his pocket. “That’s all.” He walked over to the stove top, anxiously wringing his hands. “What are you cooking?”

“That pasta you like.” Carlos watched TK carefully for a moment before standing and coming up behind him. He put his arms around TK from behind and pulled him in for a hug. “So I take it Andi wants you to turn in Alex for that?” He smiled against TK’s neck, giving him a soft kiss. “I’m assuming that’s the ‘you-know-who’ she means?”

TK sighed and turned in Carlos’s arms. “Um…no. Actually it isn’t. Alex was probably her favorite of my boyfriends. Until you. She’s a big fan of you so far.” TK gave him a deep kiss on the lips, obviously trying to distract him. “And I have to say…I can’t disagree. You are pretty awesome.”

“Thank you.” Carlos blushed. “There are ones worse than Alex? Seriously?”

“Yeah.” TK rubbed at the back of his neck. He pulled away from Carlos’s hold and turned back to the stove. He stirred the pasta for Carlos, staring intently at the contents.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah…why wouldn’t I be?” TK plastered on a smile, but it didn’t quite hit the mark.

“Oh, I don’t know. The sweat you broke out in at the mention of exes? The fact you’re actively trying to cook? The texts? The—“

“Okay. Okay.” TK held up his hands.

“So…asshole exes? Is that what this is about?” Carlos reached around him and turned down the stove.

TK shrugged. “Sorta. I guess that and this weekend.”

“This weekend?”

“You know…Valentine’s Day.”

Carlos’s eyes widened at that. “Not a fan?”

“Nope.” TK squeezed Carlos’s arm and slipped past him. He busied himself with grabbing a water from the fridge, ignoring the questioning gaze from his boyfriend.

“For real? Mister grand gesture romantic isn’t a fan of Valentine’s?” Carlos started to plate up their food.

TK took his plate and moved toward the table. “Yeah…just had a bad experience in college.”

Carlos nodded and joined him. “Don’t we all have that. Feels like everyone has a ‘I was broken up with on Valentine’s’ story.” He took a bite of the pasta.

TK scotched and moved his food around his plate. “Yeah….”

Carlos picked up on TK’s mood. He set his fork down and looked him up and down. “But something tells me yours was more than that?”

“It’s fine. It was like…six years ago. It’s no big deal.” TK stabbed a noodle with a little more force than necessary.

“Seems like it is something.” Carlos reached over and took TK’s hand in his. “What happened?”

TK shook his head. “It’s nothing. Seriously. You don’t want to hear it.”

“I do.” Carlos squeezed his hand.

TK shifted nervously in his chair biting his lip. “It’s really stupid. Like…I was really stupid.”

“I doubt that.” Carlos turned to give TK his full attention, their food already forgotten. “What happened?”

“It was my fault. It’s nothing.” TK swirled his fork in the noodles a little more and stared intently at the bowl, not meeting Carlos’s gaze.

“Still doubting that, Ty.” Carlos tugged on his hand gently. “What happened? Please?”

TK sighed and finally met his gaze. “I was a dumb kid and was with a guy I shouldn’t have been with.” He shrugged and sat back in his chair. He kept his hand in Carlos’s. The other man started to rub circles on the back of his hand, silently urging him on.

TK nodded. He pushed the food away with his other hand before anxiously running a hand through his hair, pulling at a few strands. “Um, I was dating this guy. We met at a frat party. I was…I was pretty high the first time we met.” He looked up to gage Carlos’s face. He remained warm and open despite TK’s admission. “I was using. A lot. Back then. Um…dad was going through his second divorce. Mom was pushing me to go pre-law. And I just…I didn’t really want to deal with any of it.”

“It sounds like it was a hard time.”

“Yeah…not my best year.” He pulled harder on his hair. “So I was using more. And going to parties. I was at NYU then. Don’t know that I ever said I went there.”

“You didn’t.” Carlos squeezed his hands again. “What did you major in?”

“Public health with a bio emphasis.”

Carlos whistled out at that. “Impressive.”

TK smiled genuinely at that. “I did alright. I knew it would be useful in the fire academy, and mom assumed I would eventually declare pre-law and go the healthcare legal route one day.”

“But…”

“I didn’t want that, and she had a hard time letting go. We got there. But the in between was messy.” He cleared his throat. “That’s where Derek came in.”

“The asshole boyfriend?”

“Yeah.” TK cleared his throat again. “So we met at a frat party. Fall semester of my sophomore year. An addict…” TK closed his eyes at that. “Knows another addict.”

“Oh.”

“So,” TK took a deep breath. “We started hanging out. Usually just to get high. He had connections. And he was, well he was hot.” TK shook his head. “He was confident where I wasn’t. He was freeing. So, when he asked if I wanted to hook up. To eventually go out…”

“You went.” Carlos rubbed his thumb over TK’s hand again. “You were hurting and he was there.”

“Something like that.” TK gave him a sad smile. “We’d go out, usually to parties or he’d sneak me into clubs. I wasn’t twenty-one yet. So he’d take me. He liked to show off. He’d prove how he could charm a bouncer. Fake an ID. Con a dealer…” TK’s voice cracked on that part.

“Ty?”

“The last one. That occurred on Valentine’s Day weekend.” He ran a hand over his eyes. It shook. “I, he’d promised we’d go out. Do something nice. Not just our normal ‘grab some pizza and get high at his apartment then fuck’ thing.”

Carlos raised an eyebrow at that.

“He was using me. I just didn’t see it.”

“What happened that night?”

TK let out a shaky breath. “He took me out to a nice restaurant. First time he’d ever actually done that. He went all out. Had the reservation. Dressed up. Ordered my favorite food for the table. Got the waiter to ignore that I was underage so we could have a bottle of wine. Whole shebang.” TK tapped his fingers on the table nervously. “I was tipsy after. I thought, I thought we’d go back to his place for the night. He’d mentioned spending the night together so we’d wake up on Valentine’s Day together. How he would fix us breakfast in bed and do all this shit.” TK sighed. “But he said he wanted to stop and pick up some things. I assumed it was from our usual person. So I said okay. But it wasn’t. He wanted to get something extra from someone new. So I was tipsy from the wine and walking into a drug deal.”

“Jesus…”

“Not my finest hour.” TK shook his head and bit his lip.

“Hey, don’t do that. You didn’t know.”

“I should have.” TK shrugged. “But I didn’t. So I went. It was in a pretty shady area. But again, didn’t think anything of it. I wanted to do what Derek wanted. And I probably wanted to get high…”

“You were struggling.”

“That’s one way of putting it.” He squeezed Carlos’s hand. “A very nice way to.”

“Did something happen? At the deal?”

TK nodded, casting his eyes down. “Derek didn’t have enough money for the pills. Not for the amount he’d asked for apparently. He got pissed at me. Turned it on me for the nice date and all then told me to make up the difference. I didn’t have cash on me.” TK’s hand clenched under Carlos’s. “So they found another way for me to repay them that didn’t require money.”

Carlos eyes widened in fear, his mind obviously going to the worst case option. “Tyler? What? What exactly—“

“No. Nothing like that. Promise.” TK chewed on his lip. “They wanted to hurt me but not like that. So Derek let them.” TK closed his eyes. “They were violent. More than the normal dealers we frequented. The

“They beat you,” Carlos gasped.

“Yeah.” TK let his gaze flicker up to Carlos’s briefly. “It was kind of bad…”

“TK—“

“They pulled out a ball bat. Derek didn’t notice until it wast too late. I don’t think he expected that but it didn’t really matter at that point. Was too late.”

“Shit…”

“Yeah, I don’t, I don’t know how long it went on. I think I blacked out. Derek ran off at some point I think.”

“He left you?” Carlos all but snarled.

“He wasn’t my best pick,” TK tried to joke. Carlos’s look just grew more concerned. “I woke up the next morning, on Valentine’s Day morning more specifically, in the hospital with my mom and dad on either side of me.”

“I’m so sorry.” Carlos pushed his chair forward so that he was closer to TK. “That’s awful.”

“Yeah, it was. So I spent what was supposed to this awesome Valentine’s Day with my boyfriend…in a hospital bed waiting on my knee to stop swelling so I could have a surgery on it to fix some messed up ligaments.”

“Wait, that scar on your knee?”

“Yeah, that’s why I never really like wearing shorts. I don’t love the reminder.”

“I’m so sorry, babe.” Carlos leaned forward and pulled TK into his arms.

“It’s okay, Carlos. It was years ago. I’m fine. My parents figured things out after that and I got help.”

“That doesn’t make it all okay.” Carlos pulled out of the hug and looked him over. “I’m so sorry.”

TK smiled softly. He pressed forward again and gave Carlos a kiss. “Thank you. Besides, you’re a much better Valentine. Even if I hate the holiday.”

Carlos laughed a little at that. “Hey…speaking of the holiday. What do you want for breakfast? On Valentine’s Day? Let me make up for…that version of the holiday. Please?”

TK blushed at that. “You don’t have to. Besides. I work that morning. I’m on for a twenty-four. It’ll be like 10pm when I get home on Valentine’s.” TK stood up. “But speaking of food, we should probably reheat this.” He picked up their food, effectively ended their conversation. “Hey—do we have any of that bread left over from the farmer’s market? I think it would be good with this.”

Carlos let him change the subject. He got up to get the food and help. He let it go. For now…

xxxxxxxxxxx

TK hated Valentine’s Day. They’d responded to so many stupid accidents thanks to the day. Everything from drunk driver car crashes following too much wine at the restaurants. To grease fires at homes. To weird bedroom accidents…

He shivered at the last one as he walked up the porch. It was late. 10pm just like he expected, like he had told Carlos Friday. He dug his keys out of his pocket, taking in the darkened windows. Carlos wasn’t usually one to go to bed early, but then again, he’d probably had a long day himself. TK opened the door as quietly as possible and shuffled inside.

He stopped dead in his tracks once inside.

The table was set with candles and Carlos’s nicest plates. The lights were all dimmed. The kitchen smelled amazing. He couldn’t quite place what the food was. He also couldn’t quite place Carlos…

Arms suddenly encircled him from behind. “Happy Valentine’s.”

TK couldn’t help but smile at his boyfriend. “Same to you.” He twisted in Carlos’s arms, pressing a kiss to his lips. “What did you do?”

“Well, I thought I’d try and make up for things. Give you a real Valentine’s Day breakfast. Just maybe not in bed. Since it’s 10pm.”

TK felt his face redden at that. “Really?”

“Yeah…come on.” Carlos took his hand and led him to the table. “Sit.” He placed another kiss to TK’s head. He then jogged into the kitchen. He grabbed a couple champagne flutes that were already filled with orange liquid. “Here. Virgin mimosas.”

TK laughed. “So orange juice?” He took a sip despite the joke, savoring the taste.

“No,” Carlos snarked back with a smile. “I found a recipe online. It’s more than just orange juice. Do you like it?”

  
“It’s really good. Thank you.” TK set his glass down and stood. “You didn’t have to—mmph!’

Carlos cut him off with a kiss. “I wanted to. I wanted to do something for our first Valentine’s anyway. And after we talked the other night…”

“I’m really okay. Promise. I dealt with that shit years ago.”

“Still.” Carlos rubbed TK’s arm. “I wanted to something. So…virgin mimosas and breakfast pizza.”

“Really? Like you made a couple months ago?”

Carlos chuckled. “Yes…even remembered to use that vegetarian bacon you like.”

TK stepped forward into Carlos’s space. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to. Promise.”

TK kissed Carlos again, melting into the touch.

They stayed that way for awhile, getting lost in kisses and touches. Eventually, Carlos pulled away, out of breath but still smiling. “We should probably eat.”

“Yeah. Yeah we should,” TK replied, just as breathless.

“But we can finish this later?”

“Oh for sure.” TK gave him one more peck on the lips.

“Sit. I’ll get the pizza from the oven.”

TK allowed Carlos to take care of him. To bring the food to the table and serve it. It was delicious. Far more than any pizza TK had ever before. Far more than that so called fancy dinner years ago. This was just more in every way.

The date was perfect. It would go down as one of TK’s favorite in their relationship. It was just… _everything_.

TK was started to think Carlos may just be his everything. And for once, that thought didn’t scare him. At all…


End file.
